About 35 trip photos mainly taken by Betty Nolan
are posted at www.ritzpix.com in an album
entitled “2009 – France” under member name of Lewis “Buzz” Nolan’s email
address. Email lewis_nolan@yahoo.com
for instructions on how to access. Note: captions were being added to photos in
late 2009.

By LEWIS NOLAN

Nov. 9, 2009, Monday– In Normandy,
France

We arose with the
help of our travel alarm clock about 6:45 a.m. so we could take advantage of an
early start on the all-day tour provided by our Viking ship of the Normandy D-Day Landing Beaches.

Betty and I had visited
much of the area with our teenage son, Casey, about 20 years ago and still felt
the wonderfully preserved artifacts and history of the Allied landings against
hostile gunfire tell a powerful story about our United States of America and
its nobility when facing huge obstacles. We were resolved to make a very long
day out of revisiting the beaches as reminders of what a great country we have
as Americans.

We boarded one of four
tour buses provided by Viking and were told we wouldn’t return to the ship
until 6:30 p.m., feeling fairly confident that the visit to the Normandy beaches and AmericanCemetery
and Memorial overlooking one of the hotly contested landing areas would probably
be the highpoint of this trip. It was. While we greatly enjoyed seeing
everything on the excursion, I would have preferred if an hour or two could
have somehow been trimmed from the intense schedule.

Breakfast on the
boat was early and light. Betty – never much of a breakfast fan - limited her
meal to cereal with fruit. I went for my customary banana, a small serving of
scrambled eggs plus two small pieces of delicious bacon, a slice of turkey and
a small glass of tomato juice. Betty snagged a few slices of cheese to snack on
later with Melba toast brought from home.

The tour bus drove
us in reasonable comfort for about two hours from the Le HavrePort
dock. Our tour guide was possibly the best group leader we’ve ever had on
organized trips we’ve taken. His name was Jacques and we learned that he had
been a young boy, age 4, living in nearby Caen when World War II broke out. He
appeared to be about 70 years old and told us he had been in the tour business
for 40 years, previously working as a lecturer in a law school.

His excellent
English gave us overviews and details of the Allied efforts when Normandy was invaded.
His presentations seemed to be perfectly fitted and timed to what we saw from
the bus windows and short walks at assorted stops. His delivery was executed
his intelligence and personal knowledge of things he witnessed. His
experiences, fondness for Americans, scholarship and showmanship kept the 50 or
so passengers on the bus entertained and better educated about one of the great
contests of World War II.

We got his business
card and plan to give it to our travel agent back in Memphis, Erin Bobbit dePadilla of
Gulliver’s Travel, who previously had put us in touch with another local guide
of comparable excellence in Paris earlier in 2009.

Thankfully for this
excursion to beachside battlefields of Normandy, the weather was generally
favorable. Though November, the predicted high temperature was 57 degrees, with
cloudy skies and only a 15 per cent chance of rain.

Our first stop was Arromanches, a touristy village overlooking what the Allies
called “GoldBeach.” It was one of five beaches where
the Allies landed on June 6, 1944 as a first step in taking back Europe from German control under the Nazi terror regime.
Gold and Sword beaches were primary used for landings by British forces; Omaha and Utah
beaches were used by Americans; and Juno by Canadians.

In all, 150,000
Allied troops supported by an enormous number of armored vehicles, trucks,
Jeeps, weapons and supplies needed by fighting units were landed on the five
beaches concentrated along 80 kilometers of the Normandy coastline. Remnants of
an artificial harbor called a “Mulberry” ordered by England’s Prime Minister, Winston
Churchill, survive just offshore. The surviving remnants of Mulberry Harbor –
one of two towed across the English Channel during a storm that resulted in one
sinking – is one of the great stories of the war.

Comprised of old
merchant ships chained to huge concrete boxes, the Mulberry formed a breakwater
plus three landing wharves – or floating causeways - that extended nearly a
half-mile out from shore. The Phoenix caissons
were towed across the English Channel then
flooded to sink to the bottom. An ingenious innovation of the day allowed the
“wharves” to float up and down on concrete pier heads 100-feet long that were
anchored to the bottom. The joined structures and ships formed a causeway used
to unload supplies, troops and vehicles like tanks, trucks and bulldozers.
Overhead, 100 or more barrage balloons were floated at different altitudes to
prevent Nazi airplanes from attacking. Adding to the Allied genius, artificial
fog was created at night to hide the lights of the harbor that operated
around-the-clock.

We were told that
the gigantic concrete boxes – some bigger than the largest swimming pools and
nearly 100 feet long - were secretly manufactured in England then temporarily
sunk in the Thames River to keep them out of sight from prying Nazi eyes. The
artificial, prefabricated harbor was the Allies’ answer to the ferocity of
German defenses guarding working seaports in Europe.
The ingenuity of the Allies in Normandy in duping the Germans regarding the
invasion are wonderful tributes even today of American and English brilliance
with spy craft and military strength under pressure.

The Mulberry that
survived off Arromanches was nicknamed “Port Winston”
and played a major role in the advance of Allied troops in Normandy. Experts of the day predicted it
would not last a year due to the heavy storms in the English Channel that in
fact delayed the Allied invasion by 24 hours. The unclear outcome helped force
Allied Commanding General Eisenhower to privately write two versions of a
“just-in-case” public letter – one announcing success and one announcing
defeat.

Much of the steel in
the surviving Mulberry was recovered and recycled in metal-hungry Europe following its decommissioning in 1944. But enough
remains to give visitors a great view of the engineering and logistical miracle
that is still way out from the wave-tossed shore at Arromanches
Beach.

Our tour group of as
many as 146 Seine ship passengers plus crew and staff had an excellent,
provided lunch at the town’s June 6 Restaurant, located a block or two from the
beach. Its name like much else in the area celebrates the bloody defeat of the
German occupying forces in France
during the early 1940s. Guides called our attention to the American flag flying
alongside the flag of France at the City Hall of nearby town of Collerville-sur-mer. We also noticed quite a few American
flags flying over farmhouses in the area, which was a pleasure given the
widespread coverage in the press of current, political differences between the
governments of the U.S. and France.

Our guide, Jacques, told an endearing story about the
enduring love and respect for Americans in Normandy, where many thousands of young
American men lost their lives and limbs. He said he has never heard of an
American motorist driving through the area being given a ticket for speeding or
other offense. Rather, he said, all the stories he has been told locally and by
visiting Americans are that any offending motorists are merely given a polite
warning when stopped for speeding by local police, who remain grateful for the
American sacrifices a generation or two ago.

In fact, Jacques related that one time he used his American language
skills to pose as a tourist when stopped for speeding. The policeman bought his
story and politely told him to drive more carefully in the future. In short, it
was heartening to hear that in this isolated spot there are no “Ugly
Americans.” Vive La France!

Our tour-provided lunch at the June 6 Restaurant was a set menu that
included a salad fairly typical for France and unlike those served at home. We
were each served a plate of two-or-three tablespoons of marinated cucumbers, a
dab of cut lettuce, scoop of shredded turnips, sliced tomatoes with salad
dressing and chopped, pickled beets that were grown locally. I thought the
German-style cucumbers were pretty good, but passed on the rest of the “salad.”
Betty and I both passed on big bowls of fresh, sliced French bread due to our
low-carb diets. But we did enjoy the main dish ofthick slices of
seasoned pork roast. Unlike others in our tour group, we also passed on very
large servings of French fries and ate only a few of the served fresh, green
beans. Betty enjoyed the included dessert of chocolate mousse served with
hazelnuts. We both enjoyed minimal pours from carafes of complimentary red and
white wines and glasses of ice water.

After lunch, we re-boarded the bus and were driven to the magnificent
American Cemetery and Memorial at nearby Colleville-sur-Mer,
France.

While we had been at the cemetery nearly two decades ago
. I had found it to be an emotionally moving experience to take in the
extent of the suffering by Americans and the grandness of the tribute to the
fallen. On this visit, I was once again mightily impressed by the beauty and
tastefulness of the final resting place of nearly 10,000 American soldiers who
gave up their lives in the epochal fight to liberate France and drive into Nazi
Germany.

Our tour didn’t give us enough time to again walk down the twisted path
on a steep bluff from the cemetery overlook to the 200-yard-wide beach below
(width subject to huge tides of as much as 25 feet between low and high peaks).
During the long-ago invasion, witnesses said there was so much blood that it
stained the ocean water red. In all, we were told, 10,000 American soldiers
were killed during the assault on the beachheads and following actions in Normandy, plus another
20,000 British troops and 60,000 German troops.

There were nearly 2,000 American bodies that were never recovered. They
evidently were either blown to pieces or washed out to sea by the waves and
tides.

Land for the beautiful, coastal cemetery was donated in perpetuity at
no charge by France.
It is administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission of Arlington,
VA., which operates and maintains 24 military cemeteries and 25 memorials,
monuments and markers in 15 countries. The promise of the commission that “time
will not dim the glory of their deeds” was made by its first chairman, General
of the Armies John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force
during World War I.

Nearby cemeteries include one at Saint-James holding 4,410 American
graves; one at Beny-surReviers
holding 2,049 Canadian graves and a Cintheauz holding
2,958 Canadian graves; at Urville-LaGanaggerie
holding 616 Polish graves; at Les Gateys French
Necropolis holding 19 graves (the 70 other Free French bodies were claimed by
families; at La Cambe holding 21,222 German graves, Huisnes-sur-Mer holding 11,956 German graves, at Orglandes, 11,169 graves, and St.-Desir-de-Liseaux,
3,735 graves; and 16 British cemeteries in the area holding a total of 19,187
graves, with the largest at Bayeaux, whose 4,648
graves are augmented with the names of 1,801 soldiers missing in action
inscribed on a Memorial, with more than 4,000 of the graves holding soldiers from
Commonwealth and other countries.

Battlefield brochures note that there were 49 sets of brothers buried
in the American Cemetery. That brought
to my mind seeing the sad World War II movie about several close brothers being
killed on a U.S. Navy ship that resulted in a chance in military “surviving
son” policy to disallow brothers and parent-children from serving in the same
unit. I think a Navy destroyer ship was subsequently named “The O’Sullivans” to remember the national grief over the
tragedy that wiped out a farm family’s young generation of males.

We did not visit the cemeteries for the fallen of the other nations
with forces at the invasion of Normandy.
But pictures indicate while they may not be on the scale of the American
cemetery, those cemeteries too are beautiful and well maintained. My
presumption is that they are also visited by relatives and citizens. But at
least on this visit we did not witness the offensive behavior of a busload of
German tourists that laughed and yukked it up when we
paid our respects at the American Cemetery two decades ago.

Our guide, Jacques, told us that each of the 9.238 marble crosses and
149 Star of David tombstones were made of the finest, white Lasa
marble and cost about $1,000 each (compared to an expected cost of $4,000
today). There were many more Jewish soldiers killed, but most of their bodies
were shipped home at family request to be buried in cemeteries devoted to that
faith.

The uniform, inscribed lettering is simple, giving name, rank, state of
origin and military unit. A small letter “O” at the foot of the stone alongside
a serial number indicates officer rank. The great preponderance of gravestones
noting origin from Eastern states of the U.S., was due to custom of the time.
Our guide said that most U.S. military personnel from the East fought in
Europe; those from Western states were mainly used in the Pacific Theatre of
World War II.

In less than one week, the Allied invading forces linked the different
beachheads and pressed inland. Over the next three months, the Allies battled
German troops throughout Normandy and
liberated Caen, Cherbourg. St. Lo and other Nazi
strongholds. The way was then open for the Allies to advance to Paris
and then to Germany. (I couldn’t help being disgusted that it only took
Americans and other free nation troops less than a year to force the surrender
of Germany - comredto much
longer fights in Vietnam and more recently Iraq.

In reading about Ike and his general officers’ leadership in World War
II, I was struck at how they unfailingly demanded that troops and attack, with
no leeway for R&R and not much downtime for wounds. It may be no accident
that Napoleon’s brilliance a century and a half earlier grew out of his wartime
philosophy of “Audace, Audace,
TujoursAudace,”

Carefully trimmed trees, shrubs and roses in well-tended gardens
highlight the beauty of the NormandyCemetery. Beds of
polyanthus roses (ironically the same antique variety planted in the Betty Nolan
Rose Garden I endowed at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis) trim
the cemetery’s Garden of the Missing, where engraved tablets honor the 1,557
soldiers whose bodies were lost. An incredibly beautiful and solemn Memorial to
the dead features stone columns surrounding a metal statue 22 feet high of “The
Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.”

We re-boarded the bus and drove to the nearby Pointe du Hoc Monument, a
granite obelisk that tops a German bunker 100 feet up on a cliff about eight
miles to the west of the Cemetery. It honors soldiers of the 2nd
Ranger Battalion who bravely scaled the cliff on ropes to disable hugeGerman cannons
that threatened Utah and OmahaBeaches.

Several concrete bunkers where German troops lived and fought remain,
mainly broken into big slabs of reinforced concrete once hit by bombs and naval
gunfire. Craters big enough to bury trucks surround the
fighting areas. It’s not hard to imagine the sound and fury of gunfire
and shouted orders from desperate men who died in this great struggle more than
60 years ago.

We and others dozed during the long bus ride back to the Viking tour
boat. We were greeted with a cocktail reception, where I indulged in two
bottles of low-alcohol, German beer. Each contained only 0.3 grams of alcohol
carbohydrates, compared to my U.S.
favorite of O’Douls by Budweister’s
parent with 0.5 carbs. Interestingly, unlimited “alcohol-free” beer was
provided by the ship at no charge in the soft drink packages we purchased. The
packages also provided us with two logoed golf shirts plus a small collection
of souvenir post cards.

At dinner we again joined two residents of Monroe Township, New Jersey
whom we had met earlier. They are Paul Granett, (a
retired IBEW union electrician who worked for decades on big jobs in New York City including
wiring a portion of the Statue of Liberty) and his traveling companion, Gloria
Solomon, who owns a small business serving industrial customers. We learned
they both have grown children, embrace the Jewish
religion and love travel. They proved to be delightful company. They were
knowledgeable and forceful in conversation and we ate most subsequent meals
with them.

Also at our table were a tourist from Egypt
and his American wife, a career counselor at a public school, of Williamsburg, VA.

Betty and I enjoyed the served seafood bisque, broiled and seasoned
prawns and thin slices of roast beef served in yet another delicious sauce
nicoise. We also were served tiny bundles of undercooked green beans and French
crepes with berry jam.